Robbie Grabarz and Rhys Williams yesterday both struck gold for Britain on the third day of competition at the European Championships in Helsinki.
Forty eight hours after Mo Farah retained his 5,000 metres title, Grabarz claimed the first major medal of his career with victory in the high jump to confirm his credentials as an Olympic medal contender.
Then, Williams effectively sealed his place in London with victory in the 400m hurdles, going one better than in Barcelona two years ago but crucially also clocking another Olympic ‘A’ qualifying time of 49.33 seconds.
Team-mate Nathan Woodward also holds the necessary qualifying times, but looks certain to miss out after fading to seventh in the final in a time of 50.20secs.
There was also a silver medal for Lynsey Sharp in the women’s 800m, but the Scot agonisingly missed out on the qualifying time required to seal her Olympic place.
Sharp was a surprise winner of the trials last weekend and therefore needed a time of 1:59.90 seconds in Helsinki, but despite a storming finish down the home straight, she came up short by 0.62s with a personal best of 2:00.52.
Russia’s Yelena Arzhakova took gold and Maryna Arzamasava of Belarus looked set to claim silver before stumbling badly 10m from the line, allowing Sharp to burst through and also overhaul Russia’s Irina Maracheva on the line.
France’s Mahiedine Mekhissi retained his 3,000m steeplechase title.
The 27-year-old clocked 8min 33.23sec to take gold ahead of Turkey’s Tarik Langat Akdag (8:35.24) and Spaniard Victor Garcia (8:35.87).
Mekhissi won the Olympic silver medal in 2004 and was a bronze medallist at the 2011 world championships at Daegu, South Korea.
Garcia lost his battle for gold after falling at the final hurdle some 40m from the line and had to settle for bronze.
Earlier Germany’s Nadine Kleinert won the shot put with a throw of 19.18m.
Kleinert, 36, the Olympic runner-up in 2004, took the title ahead of Russia’s Irina Tarasova (18.91) and Italy’s Chiara Rosa (18.47).
Maltese in action
Malta’s Diane Borg was on the starting blocks of the second 200m heat yesterday. She came home sixth with a time of 24.68 seconds. That effort was 0.53secs slower than Borg’s national record.
Rachid Chouhal, who just missed out on a national veterans record in Wednesday’s 100m heats, failed to put in a time in the 200m event as he was disqualified from the opening heat.